As a homeowner with a mortgage, chances are you’ve heard of the term ‘refinancing’. Refinancing involves reviewing your current mortgage, and potentially swapping your loan to another lender who can better meet your current needs, wants, and circumstances. Refinancing can also allow you to consolidate your debts or pay down your mortgage more quickly. Another common reason borrowers look to refinance is so that they can access equity – the amount you’d get from selling your home after settling any associated loans, such as a mortgage on that property, and…

Darren Little and Simon Orbell have been recognised as 2020 Mortgage Global 100 by MPA Magazine. Smartmove CEO Darren Little has more than 30 years of experience in financial services. He joined Smartmove in 2014, initially as general manager before he was appointed to his current role. Prior to joining Smartmove, he worked at St George Bank as head of mortgage services, leading a team of specialists to ensure the bank is well positioned in the national broker market. Simon Orbell, meanwhile, is a director, co-founder, and senior mortgage adviser…

Australia has gone into recession for the first time in 28 years. What effect could it have on you? Australia has had a very good run when it comes to continued economic growth. Twenty-eight years without a recession is a record achievement, with the previous one in 1991. So what is a recession, and what does it mean for you? What is it? The Reserve Bank of Australia has two different definitions of what a recession is. The first is a more general one: A recession can be defined as…

Helping your kids get a handle on money can set them up with good habits that last forever. It’s no surprise to learn that the younger you start teaching kids about money – how it works and how to manage it – the better prepared they are for the rest of their lives. So what’s the best way to teach them? In some ways, it’s getting even harder to see what money is and understand its value and role because, thanks to COVID-19 and social distancing, we’re not using cash…

Mortgage approval rules are set to be relaxed to try to help the economy recover from COVID-19. But is this a good thing? To help counter the effects of COVID-19 on the economy, the Federal Government has announced plans to loosen the responsible lending laws governing the loan approval processes. The idea is to make it simpler to buy a house or refinance your current home loan. With people continuing to buy homes and building new ones, the economy will get a shot in the arm that will hopefully help…

A combination of tighter home loan lending regulations and the uncertainty in our new COVID world have made looking after your living expenses an essential part of creating a more secure future for you and your family. Many people are finding out the hard way that it’s not as easy to get a home loan approved as it used to be. The simple reason for this is that financial regulators have set tighter rules for lenders. Now they are required to look more closely at your daily living expenses to…

If you are experiencing mortgage stress, now’s the time to get on the front foot with your lender. As your mortgage broker, we can help you prepare and plan for the unknown. It’s no surprise that the outbreak of COVID-19 has caused a huge increase in mortgage stress. According to the Australian Banking Association (ABA), more than 485,000 mortgage repayments were deferred between February and June this year. IS THE CLIFF COMING? Experts and commentators have been warning us of the impending cliff that’s coming. Lenders have been giving borrowers…

“New neo bank blitzing the competition on turnaround time to approval!” Recently we had an amazing experience with a new digital bank who delivered what they promised (& with lightning speed!). Clients were already pre-approved and had purchased their new home. One of the applicants was receiving a top-up payment from JobKeeper and the lender where they were pre-approved would not accept their application due to their stance on this JobKeeper payment. Andrew created a backup plan with 86 400 who approved the loan within 3 hours of being submitted…

The worst thing a broker can do at the moment is go into hiding, says the CEO of Smartmove Professional Mortgage Advisors Darren Little. Brokers have been presented with an amazing opportunity to solidify their relationships with clients during the COVID-19 pandemic, he says, explaining that guiding clients through this time could prove cornerstone for a long-lasting and trusted relationship. MPA spoke with Little about the role technology can play in delivering exceptional customer service and how Smartmove won Best Customer Service for the third time in four years at last…